The 5th International Rojava Film Festival continues on its third day. As part of the festival, filmmaker Ömer Leventoğlu gave a seminar titled “A Part of Kurdish Cinema: Bakur Cinema.” The seminar took place in the hall of the Mihemed Şêxo Culture and Arts Center.
Ömer Leventoğlu drew attention to filmmaking in Bakur, film production, and the state of documentary and feature filmmaking.
In his talk, Leventoğlu said: “Yılmaz Güney is one of the founders of Kurdish cinema. Yes, he shot his films in Turkish, but if he were alive, he had a project based on the Kurdish struggle. Yılmaz Güney created a method for Kurdish cinema. Because he put forward a perspective, an idea; he shaped what beauty is in cinema, what philosophy is, and which actors and cameras should be used to tell the stories.”
Emphasizing that the Turkish state’s negative influence on Bakur cinema is enormous, Ömer Leventoğlu concluded his remarks as follows: “Some Kurdish filmmakers are under the influence of enemy policies; they produce films within the logic of the system but tell Kurdish stories. All their crew members may be Kurdish, but because they remain under the influence of the enemy, they do not contribute to Kurdish cinema. Their perspective and way of thinking are a reflection of Turkish colonialism. There are many such examples. In Bakur, there are not many filmmakers with a revolutionary perspective. However, there is a very strong potential, and work is needed to bring this potential to light.”